


Together or Five Times Din Changed His Mind

by Ripki



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s02e08 The Rescue, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fix-It, Fuck Canon, Gen, ManDadlorian, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28167753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ripki/pseuds/Ripki
Summary: The Jedi has picked Grogu up, is leaving already, when Din’s brain finally catches up,what, wait just a minute –Or five times Din changes his mind and goes back for his boy.
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda
Comments: 4
Kudos: 141





	Together or Five Times Din Changed His Mind

**Author's Note:**

> Like so many of you, I believe the baby and Din belong together. So, I had a lot of _feelings_ after _that_ episode. Thank fuck there is fic!

I

The kid is clutching at Din’s boot, looking up at him with big dark eyes. Din can feel the anticipation in the room; the Jedi is waiting for Grogu to go to him, and Din’s companions are waiting too, curiously watching what will happen, and Din – Din has waited for this moment the minute he rescued the child from the Imps the first time. Waiting for someone to come and take care of the kid, someone to make him a home, someone to teach him. Someone who could be what Din thought he could never be. But –

Only now he realizes, _I want to take care of him, I want to make him a home, I want to teach him what I can. I want to be the best I can, for him_.

“Grogu,” he says, and the kid’s ears perk up.

“Buaa,” the child babbles, his grab on Din’s leg still firm, grounding.

Din swallows. Perhaps he is being selfish, but he has to make sure, he has to give Grogu – give them both – a chance. “If you want to, you can go. But – but if you want to stay, you can do that too. You can do whatever you want buddy, it’s okay.”

Grogu grins, wide and happy. “Bababaa,” he says and lifts his little arms, a sure sign for Din to pick him up. And Din does.

“Alright, kid. Alright.”

They have both decided. Whatever happens next, they will face it together.

II

The lift closes and Din’s heart sinks. He feels heavy, every bruise aching, lungs struggling to draw air. The silence in the bridge is deafening.

Belatedly, he realizes that he is still holding his helmet under his arm, face exposed to all. He finds he doesn’t care – not about that –

“Mando,” Cara says from somewhere behind him, soft and careful, like people speak to wounded things. “You had to do it.”

_Did I?_ The thought is sudden, like the blast that blew the Razor Crest to dust. It hollows out his heart. _Kark I did!_

The helmet clatters to the floor, forgotten as Din rushes to the lift, summons it with a hard jab at the controls. Cara is shouting something, Bo-Katan too, but their voices are muffled under the clamour of Din’s one, overwhelming thought: _Grogu._

He has to get his kid back.

The journey to the landing bay seems to take forever, the lift too slow, and when he finally gets to the right floor, Din runs through the wreckage of destroyed droids, his thoughts a chaos of _Grogu_ and _please_ and _I was wrong._

He runs, only to watch as the X-Wing shoots out of the landing bay, disappearing into the black.

III

The Jedi has picked Grogu up, is leaving already, when Din’s brain finally catches up, _what, wait just a minute –_

“Hey! Wait!”

The Jedi stops and turns around, Grogu’s head swivelling around too, the kid trying to see what is happening.

Din takes a deep breath, fighting not to fold under the Jedi’s calm, powerful gaze. “Just – where are you taking him? What kind of home is he going to have? Are there others like him there?” Hundred other questions demand answers; what kind of man is he, what kind of things is he going to teach Grogu, is he going to care – _love_ – the kid like his own?

The Jedi looks down at the child in his arms, then back at Din, something in his face softening. Grogu chirps questioningly, one hand raised towards Din.

“I see we have a lot to talk about.”

“Yes,” Din says wholeheartedly, relieved beyond measure. They have indeed.

IV

The crew bunks in Fett’s ship are hard and narrow, not enticing sleep. Din lies on one, still in full armour, eyes closed. They are on their way to somewhere, some way station where they can leave him, Din doesn’t really care where. Some place where he can go back to the way it was before – _before_. Hunting bounties, scraping a living day by day, traveling from system to system, alone.

Lucky that Fett came back to pick Fennec from the cruiser; lucky that they let him hitch a ride. Din hadn’t exactly been itching to travel with Bo-Katan, her accusing stare burning holes in his beskar, although – or more likely precisely because – Din couldn’t care a womp rat’s ass about the karking dark saber. He left it on the cruiser’s bridge; she can do with it whatever she wants.

Fett and Fennec have barely spoken to him, and that’s fine with Din. He doesn’t care for their company. The pair doesn’t owe him anything anymore, their promise fulfilled. Just as Din’s own promise has been fulfilled.

_Take the child back to its own kind. This is the Way._

The armorer had made them a clan of two; now he is only one.

Sleep, when it finally comes, is a collection of disjointed images and feelings, a mix of memory and fantasy. He dreams that he is a boy and his father is teaching him how to fish. The creek is blue – as blue as the sky over Tython, where the kid is sitting on the seeing stone, small hands trying to catch a butterfly. His mother is smoothing down his tangled hair, scolding him for always messing it up, but there is a smile on her face. Grogu curls up against Din’s beskar, touches his face in goodbye.

Then it’s all black space, endlessly yawning, and the kid strains his arms towards Din, seeking to be held. _Buir. Home_. Large ears are folded down in dejection. _Want to come home._

A storm of emotions – sorrow, longing, fear, regret – hits Din, forces him down on his knees in the green grass, the sun beating down on him. In the distance, there is a large structure made of stone, a temple. Grogu is there, Din knows it as surely as he has ever known anything worth knowing. Grogu is there, wanting to come back home.

He startles awake, heart aching. Clambers out of the bunk and heads for the cockpit.

He knows where he is going next.

V

When the ship lands on Yavin 4, it’s evening and everything is shrouded with a dusky veil. Small creatures chirp in the forest, and the wind rustles in the trees, but otherwise it is quiet – peaceful –, everything and everyone readying themselves for rest.

Din wonders if he should have waited in the ship till morning, but he has no doubt his arrival hasn’t gone unnoticed. And in any case, he cannot wait – not when he has already waited for so long.

No one intercepts him as he strides through the field towards the temple, and for an awful moment, a terrible thought rises in him – what if the place has been abandoned, what if _he_ is not there – but the moment he can see the building’s front entrance, all the fears leave him in a heady rush.

Grogu is there, his little form unmistakable, and yet he is so much bigger than the last time Din saw him, and the kid is running towards Din, ears flapping, arms flailing.

“ _Father!_ ” He shrieks and stumbles on his robe; Din scoops him up into his arms and plans to never let go.

“Yeah, I’m here.” His voice is scratchy, eyes burning.

“Here,” Grogu affirms, patting Din’s pauldron, small hands tracing the mudhorn signet.

And it’s as no time has gone by, no aching years spent apart, no stretching distance between them. But then again, their hearts have always been together.


End file.
